Author: Gautam Mukherjee
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 3, 2016
URL:   http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/skeletons-rattling-are-sonia-rahul-listening.html?utm_source=vuukle&utm_campaign=vuukle_referral#vuukle_div

There is a shift happening. The BJP and the NDA as a whole have finally begun to give the Opposition as good as they get, forcing the Congress to hunt desperately for credibility in its anti-Modi campaign

The earlier narrative of a phoenix-like Congress rising from the ashes under the leadership of a mysteriously rejuvenated vice president Rahul Gandhi, is beginning to fall apart, both inside Parliament and outside. For a while, it looked very good for the disruptive and boorish avatar of Congress, culminating in its resounding victory, in consort with its camp followers, and the JD(U)-RJD combine in Bihar. Though Delhi was also thoroughly lost to the BJP, it was worse for the Congress to be completely wiped out where it had ruled for three consecutive terms. Still, Mr Rahul Gandhi’s Congress adopted much of its disruptive style from the NGO/activist politics of the Aam Aadmi Party.

Almost single-handedly, despite being just 44/45 seats strong in the Lok Sabha, and some 68 in the Rajya Sabha, the Congress managed to trash both the Monsoon and the Winter Sessions of Parliament, and paralyse the Government’s legislative agenda.

Large and important Bills like the GST, the land Bill, the bankruptcy law, the labour law, the real estate Bill and so on, are all pending. And they will stay marooned, unless the Government finds a way to coerce, rather than persuade, the Congress into cooperation. This can happen if the latter is punished for its negative politics in the forthcoming Assembly elections. But in Parliament, it is made difficult by the reckoning that if the Narendra Modi Government succeeds in being reformist, the Congress will find it difficult to return to power.

Recently, the Left and the Congress, buoyant from their many political guerrilla-style attacks on the Government, thought they might just have it on the ropes. This, after the suicide of a post-graduate student at Hyderabad, followed quickly by separatist, anti-Government, anti-Hindu offensives at the JNU and the Jadavpur University.

But neither opposition parties were actually prepared for the sudden counter-attack. The Union Home Ministry and the police arrested the students, applying the archaic British era sedition law. But, over the top or not, the law was also used liberally by the UPA in its time.

Coincidentally, various senior Congress leaders have become enmeshed in other legal proceedings. The mother-son leadership of the Congress is out on bail in the National Herald case. Mr Rahul Gandhi by himself, is also facing a charge of sedition. Voluble Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh is out on bail for a recruitment scam case dating back from his time as Chief Minister in Madhya Pradesh.

Former Union Minister P Chidambaram, it is now revealed, allegedly rewrote an affidavit to conceal that terrorist Ishrat Jehan, killed in a legitimate police encounter in Gujarat, was a known LeT operative. He apparently did this, bypassing then Home Secretary GK Pillai. The Government is now going into the details of the case to determine Mr Chidambaram’s culpability in the matter, and to provide possible relief and retribution to the affected.

In addition, the Enforcement Directorate has also discovered that Mr Chidambaram’s son, Karti, amassed huge wealth and property in various parts of the world, in the period 2006-2014, when Mr Chidambaram was the Union Minister. This has become an electoral issue in Tamil Nadu.

So, in the current Budget Session, used as the Congress/Left have become to raising slogans, rushing to the well, and refusing to allow any business from being conducted, they were overtaken and out-shouted by the AIADMK. The southern party is loudly demanding immediate action against Mr Karti Chidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis scam. And this, vigorously enough to shut down both Houses of Parliament on March 1.

The AIADMK demand has drowned out the Congress clamour for a privilege motion against Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani. Besides, the Government plans to move its own counter-privilege motion against Mr Jyotiraditya Scindia, to trade charges on who ‘misled’ Parliament. Both sides will now have to wait and see how AIADMK is served, but the NDA must be pleased, particularly since the Congress has teamed up again with the DMK in Tamil Nadu.

With the Government now determined to give as good as it gets, the odds are beginning to even. Another instance of returning the favour of Mr Gandhi’s oft-repeated suit-boot jibe came almost providentially. State BJP men were able to point out to Congress-run Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah’s Rs 70 lakh diamond encrusted Hublot watch. So much so, he was forced to donate it to the state treasury in desperation.

The fall of the Congress Government in Arunachal Pradesh due to defection in its ranks, and the possibility of a BJP-plus win there in a fresh election, is also evidence of a more aggressive stance, reminiscent of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

As of February 29, however, the NDA may have gone in for a real and strategic shift to the Left, with emphasis on measures for rural India, the farmers, the poor, poor women, job skilling etc. Many are hailing it as the ‘Jai Kisan’ Budget. If this stance is amplified going forward, it won’t be easy for the Opposition, even as new rounds of Assembly elections come into view, to accuse this Government of being anti-poor.

And by cleaving to the prudence of upholding the fiscal deficit targets unchanged at 3.5 per cent for FY17, the Government has also pleased most conservative economic observers here, abroad, and in the Reserve Bank of India. An interest rate cut may shortly happen, provided there is no spike in inflation. This might just stimulate the beginning of a fresh investment cycle in private business and industry, long awaited over the 21 months of the Government's tenure.

If, through both substantive measures and perception shifts, the Government begins, more and more, to resemble the UPA, however, it should still remain free of scams and high-level corruption.

However, for those who had hoped for Thatcherite privatisation, at least of badly done PSU banking, for example, or Reaganesque tax cuts and Government down-sizing, the Modi Government is clearly not going to oblige. It appears committed to an incremental and cautious growth of the Nehruvian mixed economy. It will not risk its political capital with bold structural reform and open-market capitalism.

 So, as Mr Modi reveals his essentially nationalist philosophy, the BJP is deliberately moving towards a presumed larger, Centre-Left constituency, carved out perhaps from defectors from various dynastic regional parties and the Congress. Thankfully, it has retained its strong commitment towards building up Indian Railways, roads, highways, electricity, ports, canals, nuclear/solar energy, defence and other manufacturing, at the same time.